Shooting at Muslim cemetery in Canada, 4 in hospital

13/03/2016| IslamWeb

Four men were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds after a shooting at a Muslim cemetery outside of Calgary on Friday, though police were quick to say it did not appear the victims were targeted because of their religion.

"We do not believe it's a hate crime at this time," said Cpl. Hal Turnbull, a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Alberta, saying that officers were looking at various other possibilities, including the possibility it could be gang-related.

Zouheir Osman, director for the cemetery about a kilometer east of Cochrane, where Friday’s shooting occurred, said a service for a 21-year-old man had just wrapped up and some guests had already left prior to the incident.

He said he’d also left by about 3:15 or 3:20 p.m., but he turned around when a neighbor called to tell him something had happened.

“You don’t know what to do,” Osman said.

“You don’t know what to think.”

Local media reported that there was a funeral earlier in the day at the cemetery, which serves Calgary's Muslim population, and a group had stayed on site after the service. That is when the shooting is believed to have occurred.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Calgary police vehicle sits outside the Foothill Hospital, where injured Muslim people are treated in Calgary, Canada, Friday, March 11, 2016.

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